Youth Social Justice Forum Gets Milwaukee Youth Talking about Equality and Free Speech

On Thursday November 4th, 2010, over 300 high school students came together at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee Student Union for the 11th Annual Youth Social Justice Forum.

The crowd of students, teachers and volunteers gather for the day

Students learn how to build puppets from scratch to turn their ideas into 3-D images

With the assistance of almost 80 volunteers from all over the city, including the 2010-2011 class from Public Allies Milwaukee, students actively participated in educational workshops that covered topics from “Creating Audio PSAs” for radio broadcast to “Political Cartooning and Art.” The workshops were presented by volunteers and partners from across the region.

Art Night Books artist Devin Trudell shares political cartoons

In its eleventh year of operation, the Youth Social Justice Forum has evolved from a political awareness event for Milwaukee-area youth to a premiere Social Justice Forum for education and activism for southeastern Wisconsin. The Youth Social Justice Forum increases awareness about issues that directly affect young people, offers hands-on workshops that teach youth real skills to help them raise their voices, provides experiential learning that fosters creative and collaborative thinking, and brings people together to bridge the gap between different racial and economic backgrounds.

Political expression in t-shirt form is ripped from the headlines and incorporated into a workshop

The First Amendment comes alive when students have hands-on lessons about free speech and art

In addition to the workshops, those in attendance also had the opportunity to observe a debate concerning the topic of immigration reform and then cast a ballot to vote on the debated measure using real ballots and counting machines.

City of Milwaukee ballots and tabulators give students the experience of voting

True Skool speakers discussed the history of urban art

This event would not have been a success without the participation and collaboration of many talented volunteers and facilitators. Supporting organizations and businesses include: 88.9 Radio Milwaukee, the City of Milwaukee Election Commission, Milwaukee Public Theatre, Public Allies Milwaukee, RedLine Milwaukee, True Skool, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Urban Underground and the ACLU of Wisconsin staff and friends. The countless hours spent during preparation for this event resulted in a fantastic outcome.

Public Allies Milwaukee volunteers helped the day run smoothly

Photos taken by ACLU of Wisconsin staff member Marion Ecks

View more pictures from the event on the ACLU Student Alliance HQ Facebook photo gallery

Bring the Youth Social Justice Forum or other youth rights workshops to your students or community group! For more information on next year's event or to get news and information about our educational work with young people, sign up for updates or contact our Youth and Program Department at (414) 272-4032 x 23. Get involved!

Milwaukee ACLU Celebrates Banned Books Week

The ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation, Woodland Pattern Book Center, the Wisconsin Center for the Book and Art Night Books co-hosted, co-presented the 2nd annual Banned Book reading in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the evening of October 1st at Woodland Pattern.

About 45 attendees enjoyed wine, food and challenged book readings by guests Vince Bushell, Daisy Cubias, Tom Montag, La Shawndra Vernon and Scott Walter.


Vince Bushell, botanist & publisher of the Riverwest Currents, read from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughter House Five.


Daisy Cubias, celebrated poet and native of El Salvador, chose to read selected poems from a Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton. Poet, printer and Wisconsin Center for the Book board member, Tom Montag, read from Ulysses by James Joyce. La Shawndra, activist and well known performer, read from The Color Purple by Alice Walker.


University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee professor and lecturer, Scott Walter, appropriately read 1984 by George Orwell.


Asking the audience, “where would we be as a people and a society without many of these wonderful books we grew up with?” Angie Trudell Vasquez invited people to imagine how our lives would be different without such great literature. Co-host and poet, Vasquez read from Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.


Another co-hosts, ACLU of Wisconsin Youth & Program Director, Emilio De Torre, dressed this year as Lord Byron and read from his much enjoyed original poem combining Banned Book titles and pleas for donations to our represented worthy organizations.


After the event people thanked the ACLU of Wisconsin for supporting their freedom to read said what a good time they had hearing celebrated works, banter and conversation. Many people commented on their literary favorites being on the banned book list. An English teacher in the audience said much of what she assigned showed up on the classics lists.

ACLU Legal Observers: Witnessing History

On May 1st, 2010, supporters of the rights of immigrants and workers took to the streets in cities across the United States in support of comprehensive immigration reform and repealing Arizona's new racial profiling law. At the large marches in Milwaukee and Madison, ACLU volunteers were wearing bright yellow t-shirts that said "Legal Observer" or "Observador Legal" and handed out information on the rights of protesters.

ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation's legal observers are volunteers who are witnesses of First Amendment rights at protests. After training new legal observers on the rights of demonstrators and how to be effective and efficient witnesses, volunteers go out into the field to monitor protests from start to finish.

In Milwaukee on May Day, march organizers said that over 35,000 people took part in the massive protest. With a large team of volunteer legal observers, the ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation was able to distribute around 10,000 "Know Your Rights with Law Enforcement" brochures with information for participants about their right to protest and how to deal with police encounters.

Observers did not witness any civil liberties violations, but at one point a fire raged in a dumpster near the starting point of the march. Legal observers helped organizers steer the crowd to safety while Milwaukee District 2 Officer Robert Velez acted bravely and quickly to move the flaming dumpster away from the building to prevent a larger fire from spreading.

In Madison, legal observers marched with the May Day crowd from Brittingham Park to the Capitol. Madison Police did an excellent job rerouting traffic down W. Washington and the crowd was orderly as it marched past downtown businesses, houses with Mifflin Street revelers, and into the Farmers Market on the square. No arrests were reported.

In order to document potential violations of constitutionally protected free speech, each legal observer carries their trusty notepads, cameras, cell phones or video cameras. By remaining politically neutral during these events, we guarantee the rights of ALL to assemble and express themselves – regardless of their opinions. From hometown meetings to Tea Party rallies, immigration protests, tuition protests and sit-ins over workplace bias, the ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation volunteers are watching, educating and advocating.

Worried you're not qualified? Legal observers in Wisconsin are of all faiths, ages and races and have volunteered on foot, bicycle, car and wheelchair. Previous experience? Students, teachers, parents, children, artists, mechanics, lawyers, laborers, musicians, waitresses, businesspeople and retirees are all welcome. So if you have a desire to protect our freedoms and see history being made as you go, contact us.

Crivitz Police Violated Free Speech Rights and Unconstitutionally Seized Veteran’s Flag On the Fourth of July

The ACLU of Wisconsin Stands Up for the Right to Fly Flag Upside Down

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin Foundation announced today that it will represent Vito J. Congine, Jr., the owner of a supper club, in his dispute with the Crivitz police department over the department’s seizure of his American flag on the Fourth of July.

AP Photo/Susan Willems
According to a press release by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Crivitz defending the department’s actions, police officers setting up for the Fourth of July parade received “numerous complaints” about Mr. Congine’s flag, which was flying upside down. Mr. Congine was flying the flag upside down to protest the Village’s denial of a liquor license for his supper club after he believed he had the go ahead and had spent significant money on renovations. According to police, some of the parade-goers threatened “property damage and bodily harm to the property owner,” who was not present at the time. Rather than protect Mr. Congine’s First Amendment right to express disagreement with his local government and defend his property from would-be vandals, the police, at the direction of the Marinette County District Attorney, instead trespassed on Mr. Congine’s property and confiscated his flag.

“I have a right, like every person in this country, to express myself, especially on my own private property,” said Mr. Congine, an Iraq veteran. “I was shocked that the police would go onto my land without my permission and take my property because some people didn’t like how I was expressing myself.”

“Nothing could be more natural for free Americans than to protest when they believe that officials have treated them unfairly,” said Chris Ahmuty, executive director of the ACLU of Wisconsin. “That’s exactly what Mr. Congine was doing when he was flying his flag upside down. The U.S. flag is a symbol that belongs to all Americans, who frequently use it during demonstrations, marches and other forms of protected free speech. It is the government’s responsibility to protect such expression, not to enforce a ‘heckler’s veto’ when people get upset about free speech.”

Larry Dupuis, the ACLU of Wisconsin’s legal director, added, “Crivitz should spend its time and resources protecting Mr. Congine from the criminals who continue to threaten his property, not making excuses for its un-American tactics on the Fourth of July.”

More on this story can be found at the Green Bay Press Gazette (including an editorial against the criminal damage to Congine's property), WFRV-TV's story with video about Congine's response to harassment, and a WLUK-TV video on community protest and support.

Madison students speak up about age discrimination, radio show Sunday

One of the best parts of my job is when I get to talk to young people about civil liberties. It’s been a while since I’ve been in high school, but I seem to remember that anyone (I mean ANYONE) who would actually listen to my questions about my right to personal expression, religious freedom, the civil rights movement and more would be pretty cool. Little did I know that getting the chance to answer those questions would be even better.

Take the media history class at LaFollette High School. This Madison area classroom has spent the whole semester talking about the media: its role in American democracy, structures from the underground to the corporately consolidated, and how media impacts our lives and our political system. These students welcomed ACLU staffers to talk more about the First Amendment, the past 20 years of Supreme Court decisions that impact student expression rights, and what free speech means to them.

For their final project, the students are taking to the airwaves to bring what they learned about the media to the public. Wanting to pick a topic that was relevant to them, the students explored the issue of the appropriateness of the legal drinking age of 21. This led into a broader discussion of what it means to be an adult, what the law says, and how our society views the rights of young people.

The first installment of their project aired on the Madison community radio station, WORT 89.9 FM on Monday, June 1. You can find the show through the station’s archives – just scroll down to find the “Access Hour” on June 1st. The students got some experience on the microphone both live in the studio and through their interviews of their principal, the city mayor, insurance company reps, child development specialists and others who work with youth. They took phone calls and questions about youth rights and other young people got a chance to speak out about the discrimination they feel as they jump from one legal benchmark of becoming an adult to another.

The next time the students will be live on the air will be this Sunday, June 7 at noon on WTDY Talk Radio 1670 AM. You can go to their website to listen on-line too. Tune in and hear students exercise their freedom of speech as they talk about their rights. They will be taking questions on Sunday as well, so let them know that you are listening and support their project.

It was great to talk to them about the importance of free speech. It’s something that the ACLU is really famous for defending and being able to educate young people about the First Amendment is as fun as it is important. They all got copies of our Freedom FAQs (found on our ACLU of Wisconsin youth page) and more information on how they can get involved as student civil libertarians by finding us on Facebook.

For more information on the ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation’s youth rights education program, contact Emilio in Milwaukee or Stacy in Madison.

- Stacy Harbaugh, ACLU of Wisconsin Madison Community Advocate

Merry Chrismahanakqanzica and Happy New Year

While we are in the midst of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Pagan holidays, many will celebrate in their own ways as dictated by religious or family tradition in many cases. All Americans can celebrate as well, if they believe that the ability of individuals and families to celebrate or not celebrate as they chose is important. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects religious liberty for all. To protect all of us, it must protect each of us.

The majority religion or denomination in a community rarely needs the protection of government to exercise their right to celebrate at home, their place of worship, or in any public forum during the holiday. The First Amendment wouldn’t mean much if it only protected majorities. The First Amendment is worth celebrating any time of year, because it protects minorities, including those who appear outlandish or even blasphemous.

Some times religious leaders want the government to endorse particular beliefs by means of displays like crèches or sectarian music. One wonders if these religious leaders need government to sanctify their celebrations or they just want to demonstrate to one and all that they are accepted on government property. I suspect the latter, but neither motivation meets the spirit of the First Amendment.

The holidays are an emotional time for many. The framers of the First Amendment in effect tried to keep the government from making the season divisive instead of harmonious.

- Chris Ahmuty, ACLU of Wisconsin Executive Director

National news - Terrorist Watch List, FISA Fight Continues, and more

February 29, 2008

Congress Must Stand Up to Bush Fear-Mongering over FISA

Two weeks ago, leaders in the House finally stood up to President Bush’s fear-mongering and his dangerous demands, including presidential spying powers that defy the Constitution and retroactive immunity for telecom companies that turned over private information without a warrant.

There’s no predicting what happens next -- and no guaranteeing that House leaders will continue to hold the line. That’s why the ACLU is pulling out all the stops -- we ran an ad in USA Today on Tuesday to frame the debate, we’re gathering tens of thousands of signatures urging House leaders to stand their ground, and soon, we will be launching "Calling for Freedom," an all-out calling campaign aimed at flooding Congress with our message.

Click here to see the ad.

>> Take action: Tell Congress: "Keep Standing Up to Bush Fear Mongering".

>> Ask your friends to sign the petition.


Supreme Court Refuses to Review Warrantless Wiretapping Case

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the ACLU’s petition asking it to hear ACLU v. NSA, our case against the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. The ACLU filed this case two years ago to put an end to government spying on innocent Americans through National Security Agency surveillance.

From the start, the government’s argument has been that the case should be dismissed under the state secrets privilege, but that did not convince the district court in Michigan, which ruled that the NSA’s program is unconstitutional and should be stopped. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, however, asserted that our plaintiffs could not prove their communications had been tapped and dismissed the case.

"Although we are deeply disappointed with the Supreme Court’s refusal to review this case, it is worth noting that today’s action says nothing about the case’s merits and does not suggest in any way an endorsement of the lower court’s decision," said Steven R. Shapiro, Legal Director of the ACLU. "The court’s unwillingness to act makes it even more important that Congress insist on legislative safeguards that will protect civil liberties without jeopardizing national security."

>> Read more about unchecked government surveillance.


Government Again Downplays Widespread Racism Before U.N. Committee

Click here to learn about racial discrimination in your state.

Representatives from over 125 U.S.-based social justice organizations last week observed a session at the United Nations where an international panel of experts closely scrutinized the U.S. human rights record regarding racial discrimination.

High-ranking U.S. government officials had to answer very tough questions about racial discrimination in the United States. Yet, they continued to downplay the effects of widespread discrimination in this country during questioning before the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

Throughout the hearings, the CERD committee questioned the government delegation on several issues raised by the ACLU in its 2007 report, Race & Ethnicity in America: Turning a Blind Eye to Injustice. The ACLU’s report examines human rights violations, including events that took place in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, escalating police brutality and racial profiling, the dramatic increase in anti-immigrant acts and practices, the exploitation of migrant workers, and the “school to prison pipeline,” whereby the criminal justice system overzealously funnels students of color out of classrooms and on a path toward prison.

"It takes more than empty words and unenforced laws to claim high moral ground and leadership on human rights," said Jamil Dakwar, Advocacy Director of the ACLU Human Rights Program. "To be true to its ideals and to fulfill its treaty obligations, the U.S. must take vigorous and proactive measures against racial and ethnic inequality."

>> Read the ACLU’s report, Race & Ethnicity in America, and blog posts from ACLU staff who were in Geneva.


Terrorist Watch List Nears One Million

It wasn’t long after 9/11 that we began hearing from Americans who were having problems getting on airplanes because, they were told, their names were on terrorist watch lists. In typical Bush Administration style, these systems had been roughly thrown together with little thought for questions of guilt or innocence or fairness to those unfairly targeted.

In the years since, our nation's out-of-control watch lists have received a lot of terrible publicity, such as when famous people like Sen. Ted Kennedy or Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) got trapped on them, or when 60 Minutes discovered that the list included the president of Bolivia, dead people, and dozens of common American names like Robert Johnson and John Williams. Despite all this publicity, and the problems faced by thousands or millions of frustrated innocent American citizens, the problem has not gotten better. In fact, it has gotten even worse.

Based on numbers contained in a report issued by the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, the watch list is growing by 20,000 records a month — and now exceeds 917,000 people. And it’s growing by the minute — a growth that you can view in real time on our new page, which displays a rolling, real-time counter showing how many names are on the list, according to that DOJ report.

>> Learn more about the ACLU Watch List Counter.


Order To Shut Down Wikileaks.org Violates First Amendment

The ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a motion this week to intervene in a lawsuit that led a federal district judge to order the domain name Wikileaks.org shut down. The motion is on behalf of organizations and individuals that have accessed and used documents on the Wikileaks.org website in their work and want to continue to be able to do so.

The website was established to allow participants to anonymously disclose documents of public interest, including materials discussing such issues of national importance as U.S. Army operations at Guantánamo Bay, human rights abuses in China, and political corruption in Kenya.

Earlier this month, Judge Jeffrey White of the Northern District of California ordered domain registrar Dynadot, LLC to shut down the domain name Wikileaks.org based on allegations that a former employee of Swiss Bank Julius Baer posted documents on the website that highlighted the bank’s dealings in the Cayman Islands.

The permanent injunction has the effect of blocking access to all of the content contained on the website accessed through the domain name Wikileaks.org, even though the overwhelming majority of those documents and materials are unrelated to the Bank Julius Baer complaint and concern matters of significant public interest.

“The public has a right to receive information and ideas, especially ones concerning the public interest,” said Aden Fine, senior staff attorney with the ACLU. “This injunction ignores that vital First Amendment principle.”

The ACLU and EFF are seeking to intervene on behalf of themselves; the Project on Government Oversight, which works to investigate systemic waste, fraud, and abuse in all federal agencies; and Jordan McCorkle, a student at the University of Texas who uses the website on a regular basis.

>> Read the ACLU’s motion.


ACLU Sues to Protect Marriages Threatened by Recent Court Decision

The ACLU of Pennsylvania began a statewide challenge to a recent court decision that invalidates marriages presided over by a minister who doesn’t regularly serve in a physical church or house of worship.

The lawsuits were filed on behalf of three couples married in Pennsylvania by clergy who do not regularly preach in a church or to an established congregation. The couples seek judicial declarations that their marriages are valid under Pennsylvania law. The ruling potentially affects thousands of marriages, such as ACLU plaintiffs Peter Goldberger and Anna Durbin who were married in 1976.

"What we want is to fix a problem that never should have existed in the first place," said Mary Catherine Roper, staff attorney with the ACLU of Pennsylvania. "The state has no business invalidating marriages just because it doesn’t like the kind of minister who officiated them."

The issue arose in September 2007 when York County Judge Maria Musti Cook ruled that the marriage of Dorie Heyer and Jacob Hollerbush was invalid because it had been performed by a minister of the Universal Life Church who obtained his ordination over the Internet. In Heyer v. Hollerbush, the court held that the marriage never existed because the minister who solemnized it did not serve a congregation or preach in a physical house of worship.

>> Read more about this case.